I really wanted to pick up Arrow's new blu-ray of City of the Dead. I have a multi-region player, and this clearly is the best version of the film available.

But.

I would prefer to purchase a Region A version, if possible. Now I know VCI has their blur-ray, but it has been ripped by most as being inferior, even, to their own earlier DVD of the film (which I own, and am quite satisfied with for now).

Since Cohen shared the restoration with Arrow, does any think a Region A disc from them is possible? They are quite behind on their releases. Still no sign of THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, and that's months and months late, so I'm not hopeful.

I really wanted to pick up Arrow's new blu-ray of City of the Dead. I have a multi-region player, and this clearly is the best version of the film available.

But.

I would prefer to purchase a Region A version, if possible. Now I know VCI has their blur-ray, but it has been ripped by most as being inferior, even, to their own earlier DVD of the film (which I own, and am quite satisfied with for now).

Since Cohen shared the restoration with Arrow, does any think a Region A disc from them is possible? They are quite behind on their releases. Still no sign of THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, and that's months and months late, so I'm not hopeful.

Cohen has said on Facebook that both titles will be released in the U.S. at some point, but offered no idea of what sort of timeline we're looking at. They were especially vague about CITY OF THE DEAD; I think in that case they said it would come out here "eventually." So I share your frustration.

BR.com's forums say Cohen confirmed that a UK label will be doing versions of Howard's End that fix some of the problems on that release - question becomes whether or not it's Arrow or MoC, right?

(If there were more than just the two ready restorations - Howard's End and Maurice - I'd totally bet on it being Arrow as an Academy box, but I could kind of just as easily imagine it just being two attached MoC releases)

Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 12:04 pmLocation: A Midland town spread and darkened into a city

kcota17 wrote:

The Cameraman and Spite Marriage?

Right, I believe the article should have specified that Cohen owns all but two of Keaton's silent films which would be the ones quoted above. These two were produced through MGM and are now owned by Turner/Warner Brothers (although a licensing to Criterion seems likely). I don't know if Cohen has acquired any of Keaton's sound films, most of which were produced through MGM, Columbia, and the poverty-row Educational Pictures, with the occasional outlier like the French-produced Le Roi des Champs-Élysées, but I doubt it. That said, the company could certainly license clips from the later work to flesh out the documentary.

2 things for me:1) hope it includes deleted scenes (although i fear it won't since Criterion released them)2) i assume they will be careful about the AR, so I hope it has a better encoding than Howards End which wasn't anywhere near the high standards of other blurays

NEW 4K restoration of the filmNEW on-stage Q&A session with James Ivory and cinematographer Piere LhommeNEW conversation between James Ivory and director Tom McCarthyJames Ivory and cinematographer Piere Lhomme on the making of MauriceThe Story of Maurice (this is the same documentary from the Criterion/HVE DVD)Conversation with the Filmmakers (also from the Criterion/HVE DVD)Deleted scenes and alternate takes with commentary by director James Ivory (also from the Criterion/HVE DVD)Original theatrical trailerNew restoration trailerOptional English SDH subtitles for the main feature

I recently revisited Maurice and the other Merchant-Ivory adaptations of Forster novels. In the documentary on the Criterion/HVE DVD of Maurice, Rupert Graves talks about being embarrassed by his performance in A Room with a View and promising James Ivory that he would give a much better performance as Alec Scudder in Maurice. The irony of that is that he is perfectly fine in Room, his first film role—completely believable as Lucy's happy-go-lucky younger brother—whereas he nearly ruins Maurice with a broad, almost burlesque characterization totally at odds with James Wilby's far more subtle performance.

So I have been sitting on my hands for a while. I always knew I would get around to buying Cohen's Jamaica Inn and Thief of Bagdad but neither was a high priority for me, but now it looks as if both are out of print and going for insane prices on Amazon and eBay. What happened there? Was there a rights issue? Is Cohen going to rerelease these titles or should I try to snap them up if I see an opportunity?

Cohen will be releasing Howards End themselves in the UK. Totally within their power but I've felt their partnerships with the UK labels have been very fruitful at producing the best versions of their titles and hope this doesn't mean that they'll be doing the same for the Rivette titles or even other Merchant Ivory restorations.

Cohen will be releasing Howards End themselves in the UK. Totally within their power but I've felt their partnerships with the UK labels have been very fruitful at producing the best versions of their titles and hope this doesn't mean that they'll be doing the same for the Rivette titles or even other Merchant Ivory restorations.

I saw it and was disappointed.I didn't know Cohen can release in UK too like Criterion.I was hoping someone else picks this up, because I really don't like their encoding. Let alone the issues with Howards end (wrong gamma in the fixed disc).